David Brady and Daniel Kessler combine the insights of a political scientist with those of an economist and offer unique observations into the political forces and policies at play in the current health care debate.

Brady and Kessler compare the politics of Clintoncare in 1993 to the politics of Obamacare today. If President Clinton couldn't push through sweeping health care reform in 1993 why does President Obama think he can in 2009? Has public opinion or the health care system changed? Has the health care system itself changed? And what exactly is the substance of the president's plan and will Congress give him what he wants?

David Brady

David Brady is deputy director and senior fellow at the Hoover Institution. He is also the Bowen H. and Janice Arthur McCoy Professor of Political Science and Leadership Values in the Stanford Graduate School of Business and professor of political science in the School of Humanities and Sciences at the university.

Brady is an expert on the U.S. Congress and congressional decision making. His current research focuses on the political history of the U.S. Congress, the history of U.S. election results, and public policy processes in general.

Daniel P. Kessler

Daniel Kessler is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution. In addition to his Hoover appointment, he is an associate professor at the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University, where he teaches courses on economics, public policy, and the health care industry.

Among his recent publications are, with Mark McClellan, ">The Effect of Hospital Ownership on Medical Productivity," forthcoming in the RAND Journal of Economics, and "Designing Hospital Antitrust Policy to Promote Social Welfare," which appeared in Frontiers in Health Policy Research.

He is the holder of a Ph.D. in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a J.D. from Stanford Law School.

Peter Robinson

Peter M. Robinson is a research fellow at the Hoover Institution, where he writes about business and politics, edits the Hoover Institution's quarterly journal, the Hoover Digest, and hosts Hoover's television program, "Uncommon Knowledge."

Robinson is also the author of three books: How Ronald Reagan Changed My Life; It's My Party: A Republican's Messy Love Affair with the GOP; and the best-selling business book Snapshots from Hell: The Making of an MBA.

Hoover fellows Daniel Kessler and David Brady discuss tax breaks for employer-based health benefits -- the "original sin" of the healthcare system. They argue that a tax on employee benefits would help rein in spending.